Howzat Pat! (series)
Howzat Pat! (series)
9781460764688
9781460764695
Pat Cummins & Dave Hartley
Serena Geddes
Harper Collins, 2024
192pp., pbk., RRP $A15.99
I’m Pat Cummins and I love playing cricket. I love it so much that I sleep with my bat!
With another summer of cricket starting to warm up, this is a timely new series for young independent readers with a love for the game and for whom current Australian captain, Pat Cummins, is an idol. Beginning with the news that his family is moving from the coast to the mountains, and Pat experiencing all those concerns and anxieties about fitting into somewhere new, teaming up with the wrong crowd and having to make tough choices, there are themes that will resonate with many. And because this is semi-autobiographical in places, many readers will realise that he came from an ordinary family like theirs and so they, too, can have dreams and make them come true.
Integrated into the stories are things like his pre-game rituals, letters from his mum and sisters when he first became captain of his local junior team, and other incidents and adventures that have an aura of authenticity as having been real events even if they have been altered to fit the narrative. So while the story is told in the first-person, there is a sense of Pat’s personal involvement in its creation rather than just being an overseer as some similar series seem to have.
Cummins is the second-youngest of five and so there are strong themes of family throughout the books, but as he finds “his tribe” including Prav and Beth among others who have a similar passion for the game, and strong bonds are forged, the importance of friendships and the support they can give us, emerges encouraging the reader to understand that we are not alone and are at our best with others around us.
Teachers’ notes help to explore these more fully, as well as other activities such as creating a Cricket Hall of Fame that will allow those for whom the sport is also a passion to show leadership, but they also explore other aspects of the stories such as Beth’s indigenous heritage, civics issues and setting and achieving goals, so that this becomes more than just another sports-oriented series, making it one for a range of readers.
Sports heroes come and go, somewhat like the seasons, but there is a sense that long after Pat Cummins the current cricket captain has moved on, this will be one series that maintains its relevance and appeal as a story for cricket lovers.
